First lady rallies Las Vegas as news develops of Reid car accident

LAS VEGAS -- First lady Michelle Obama brought her early vote message to another crucial battleground state Friday, telling about 1000 supporters inside a middle school gym to get out to the polls, and to pull others "into the fold."

"I need you all to go vote," Obama said, before urging the crowd to visit a polling station adjacent to the school, inside a nearby shopping mall.

An election official at the Boulevard Mall later told NBC News that about 300 people arrived to cast ballots in the immediate aftermath of the first lady's event.

Early voting began Oct. 20th in Nevada and will run through Nov. 2nd -- a 14-day period.

A call to action is not a new message from the first lady, but it came Friday amid more polling showing President Barack Obama facing a tightening race against Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Marist polls this week show President Obama with a 50-47 percent lead among likely voters here in Nevada, and tied at 48 percent in Colorado.

"There will be plenty of ups and downs over the next 11 days," Obama told the crowd here, encouraging them to keep working.

The event opened against the backdrop of a drama involving Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), one of the president's most outspoken and powerful allies.

In the minutes after Reid's wife, Landra Reid, delivered remarks praising the first lady, reports materialized that Reid had been involved in an area car accident. Mrs. Reid seemed not to have been aware of the accident during her speech.

In a statement later Friday, Reid's staff said he was brought to an area hospital by his own security detail as a "precaution," with hip and rib bruises.

He was released from the hospital Friday evening, according to the NBC station in Las Vegas.

When Obama took the podium here she called Harry and Landra Reid "tremendous friends and supporters," but didn't mention the senate majority leader's accident.

"They are awesome champions for this state and for this country," Obama said of the Reids.